DIGITAL INDIA- What has it in store for us?

Since the time it was announced, there had been rows of debates and opinions regarding the ‘Digital India’ initiative spreading all across the social media. ‘Digital India’, as the name suggests, is an initiative by the Government of India to make every government services and information digitally available and accessible. It ensures all government works to go online promising a greater transparency.

What the DI aims at?

The major aim of the DI is to set up broadband in 2.5 lakh villages, universal phone connectivity, net zero imports by 2020. It also aims at providing 4 lakhs Public Internet access points along with enabling schools and all universities with free Wi-Fi. Every citizen shall be provided with a digital locker for storage of digitised documents. It seeks to restructure of the National Informatics Centre (NIC).

Benefits for the citizens

Firstly the Wi-Fi hotspots and the Public Internet Access Points (PIAP) in public places (including 500 railway stations), hitherto which were restricted to restaurants or at hospitals, enables net services for the people on the go, thus reducing the dependence on the mobile data by other private telecom companies.

The ‘Digital Lockers’ provide an online storage system for important documents like passports, mark -sheets, degree certificates etc. for easy accessibility during submissions for application of any services, thus making the whole system hassle free by sparing us the toil of carrying he physical documents along with reducing the paper costs. The lockers also provide access to govt. issued documents. These lockers can be availed by signing up with the Aadhar Card number and the phone number that is linked with the Aadhar number. The documents would be safely locked with an e-sign authentication.

Benefits for the students

It was prevalent in some universities but hardly in any schools. The DI’s initiative seeks to establish free Wi-Fi in 2.5 lakh schools and all universities. This step is going to benefit both teachers and students alike, for almost every required information are available in the internet and availing them would no longer be a problem especially for those children with no net connection at their homes.

Benefits to the villages

The high efficiency Gigabit Passive Optical Network (GPON) will be used to connect the 2.5 lakh villages announced, with Fiber To The Home (FTTH) based broadband. Their connectivity to the network would introduce them to an arsenal of information for them like Early harvest Programmes, proper weather forecast, which would serve as a guideline to the farmers who remain at dilemma and are succumbed to the debt traps, to plan their crops. The DI also includes the Government services like providing a reliable agri information and alternate marketing schemes through the services like mAgriculture and mGramBazar.

Benefits in jobs

The DI initiative being a massive project for a large mass would invariably require a huge manpower for its working. DI would ensure a rise in jobs in the IT sector in both public and private domains. An estimate of 1.7 crore trained for IT, Telecom and Electronics jobs and indirect at least 8.5 crore jobs will be created.

Major drawbacks

So far the DI seems to be dormant regarding its privacy policies for protection of the digitally stored documents and informations. Without strict privacy laws, there lies a risk of identity theft and cyber abuse of the information.

The DI is undoubtedly a giant leap towards development of India in the digital era unifying the cities to the villages through virtual string. With the tremendous support it is getting now from India and abroad, it can be clearly stated that it has many expectations to fulfil by almost every group of citizens.